What would you do if your Sergeant didn't know how to load a magazine?

Re-train her. Simple. Obviously no body showed her how to:do it.

How could the person get to the rank of Sgt. with our firing a rifle. Had to have had basic training

I would pull them off to the side and we would practice the basics and fundementals of weapons handling. Load, unload and clearing a weapon until they could do it proficiently.

I would teach them how to read...

The pic on your post won't allow me watch the video.

I can't see the video. Is she unable to load the actual rounds into the magazine, or the magazine into her rifle? Because, in her defense, I was NEVER taught how to load ammo into a magazine in basic training, I was in the Army for 6 years (Active duty AND Reserve) before I ever loaded ammo into a magazine. And at my discharge after 10 years in the Army, I STILL couldn't load the ammo individually by hand, I had to use the rapid loader (when I tried to load individual rounds, as I tried to push them in, they'd twist).

First I would have to ask “Really ?”

Then as the INSTRUCTOR, I or another capable individual would try to correct what has obviously been a huge hole in the soldier’s training. Follow that with a lot a very close supervision and further instruction as needed.

Almost everything we do outside actual combat is training for actual combat. It is our job to train. When in the instructor’s job, we often are saddled with people who are not nearly as competent or well trained as they should be. All too often, this is no fault of the individual, but the fault of those behind them that just kicked the can down the road for various reasons. That’s where we step in and see what we can do to correct the situation. We don’t always get the Soldiers/Marines/Airman/Sailors that we want. It’s up to the leaders to make them into what we need, to fit the mission and become part of your team.

During WW2, they were throwing Marines into combat so fast at the end of the war, they didn’t even know how to unpack a grenade from its canister. They would open the can, demove the grenade, pull the pin and throw it , leaving the safety clip and cardboard safety collar still on it. The Japanese would then finish taking off the safety devices and throw it back. Very thoughtful of them.

At the beginning of the Korean War, they shipped regular Marines and Reservists over together. Back then, the Reservists had little to no boot camp training. They didn’t know how to break down weapons and could barely load and fire their rifles much less machine guns. The Regulars at first treated then with disdain. The older veterans told them “you are going to be fighting shoulder to shoulder with these guys in about 20 days. You have until then to get them ready.

Coming across people with gaps in their training is still all too common. We hate to see it when they show up in our group as they take up a great deal of our time to bring them up to speed. This takes away from the time you would otherwise spend on others. We have all had to do it, we all hate it. But it is what it is.

Pulling the soldier off the line and out of the group doesn’t correct her problem. It only kicks the can down the road for someone else to correct and hope that they don’t find themselves in a forward operating base in some sandbox before then.

Let's be fair, I was an 11C and only fired an M60 once. I don't remember ever training with it, the 11B's did that. We were in the same Co. I wouldn't expect an 11B to know how to fire a mortar. Now if this were an M16, that would be different.

I think it falls onto the leadership. They need to get things more squared away and see to it quickly.

I ask myself other person became a sergeant

show them how

You can't fix stupid if you don't do the bare min. BRM and pm I no excuses for a unit reserve or not hitting a range this ate up. Leadership failure.

Well my first reaction was "WTH", but then took a deep breath and remember why we are NCO's, it's our job to "Train" soldiers. This soldier had not been properly trained, you take her off the range, and train her, and if you don't have the skill you find someone who does...none of us know everything, and can always either use initial, sustainment or refresher training...teach the soldier, so someday that NCO can teach another.

Whether they are within your chain of command or not, you dont disrespect your superiors, PERIOD. I was a 11B, and when I was a specialist, I was at a firing range in Kuwait, waiting to kick off my tour in Iraq in 06. There was a SGM there who was a cook or something, and he asked me how to adjust elevation on his M4. Should a Sergeant Major, regardless of MOS, know how to zero his rifle? You’re damn right he should. On the inside, i was pretty upset that someone with 20+ years in the military couldnt perform the most basic military task. But he was a Sergeant Major, and I was a specialist so he deserved my respect. I explained the functions of his windage and elevation respectfully. To do otherwise would only have shown my own lack of training and discipline which wokld have only served only to reflect poorly on my unit and my own leadership. Instead of trying to feel like a billy-badass telling a SGM whats up, I set the standard by being a good soldier that showed knowledge and discipline and one who respects chain of command and rank. I would act the same if it was a man or woman.

I would have pulled her of the firing line and reported her to the Range NCOIC as unsafe and in need of immediate retraining. I spent 11 years in the Regular Army before leaving and then going into the Air Force. Back in the late 80's just before Desert Shield/Storm, we were (Infantry Unit by the way) were asked to help an Admin Bn train their unit in site defense, fighting positions and range cards. I was just a young SGT E-5 at the time and had a confrontation with an MSG E-8 who told me that he and his people didn't need to learn this "crap" because they were reservist who will never have to worry about this. I recall hearing later in my life that many units in that command had been deployed in support of Desert Shield/Storm and have also been sent over in support of the war on terror. I hope that mentality that the MSG had back in the 80's was gone. All of the services need to ground (from day one) into the minds of their people that everyone is a member of the armed forces and a rifleman first, just like the Marines do. My son was a helicopter mechanic in the Marines, but had to go through a short version of Infantry training before he went off to his "A" school.

Some personnel bring more worth to the Army being technically proficient instead of being "strack" . . .

I was a Cavalry Scout (19D) for two years before I was offered to change my MOS to an Executive Admin Assistant (71C). After AIT, I was tapped to go straight to Washington DC where I replaced a civilian Executive Assistant for a general officer. Because I had a little solider bearing, I was pushed before solider boards to represent our organization in the MDW and compete with the historic winners, the Old Guard. So I built a reputation as being a solider.

When I became a SGT, in 1985, there were three SP5s that were Computer Programmers (74F) locked away in the Computer Room and worked for a civilian and had no military in their immediate chain of command. They were ragged and no had military bearing; but they were the very best in their fields and had been there for five years and were allowed to stay because they were the best. They did not care about being promoted or reassigned. They were thrilled to work on those huge computers without restraint. Because they were simply the best (back in the days of FORTRAN) at what they did, everyone was happy to have them and they were happy to be there. They would come in late, but stay and work 10-15 hours and somedays all day and night simply because they loved their work. I saw this in other DC Organizations and evening the Middle EasT, especially among the guys that worked at the embassy communications centers.

They could not solider and the Army had just began to require all Soldiers to stand the SQT ( basic soldier Skills Qualification Test) and I had to make sure they passed. I begin to push them too hard and the SGM told me, "Son, these boys are worth more to the Army locked down in the Computer Room than on a rifle range, or a bivouac. I do not care if they max the SQT or qualify as Experts with their weapon, I just want them to pass, so that I can keep them in the computer room. That I needed to make sure they met the Army's mandates so that they could continue to work their magic in the computer room.

I said all of that to sa that sometime, soldiering soldiers expect too much from technicians that happen to be solders. And bring more worth to the Army as technician than they do a solider. In the next year or two all three of those boys had ETSed out of the Army and their position became GS-11-13 (beginning at 11 and in a year they skipped 12 to become a GS-13.

I remember working at OCS, Fort Benning, GA and a female candidate was wearing her helmet on backwards and the day to clean weapons she came up to me and gave me her weapon and it was filthy, I was like this isn't clean and she was like you're suppose to clean it, I was like excuse me where's your battle buddy and I asked her battle buddy who's suppose to clean weapons her battle we are and this candidate said during basic training that the drill sergeants cleaned their weapons. I was like looks like you're learning today. She became an officer. Crazy huh.

I used to evaluate national guard and reservist units while on active duty. In most of them we found training to be poor. If it was me in this situation, I would have trained her on the spot and continued with the mission I was tasked.

Refer them for a medical evaluation. I cannot imagine that someone could have been promoted to SGT without knowing this.

If she didn't know how to load a magazine, she should have asked one of her buddies first to avoid being humiliated like that. That's what I would have done at least. If I still had trouble, I would have talked to another NCO. I certainly wouldn't talk to a junior enlisted about the trouble I'm having loading a weapon.